Tee to Green: Strange but true

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Last week a golfer in Waterloo, Ill.,
vanished into a sinkhole on the 14th hole at the Annbriar Golf Course. It was
just one of several strange golf-related incidents to occur this season.

SINKHOLE

And ... back to the sinkhole. These natural geological depressions have had
their moments of late. Two weeks ago, the earth opened under the bedroom of
Floridian Jeff Bush. The 37-year-old vanished into the void along with his
dresser, his TV and most of his bed. His body was never recovered.

Mark Mihal was more fortunate. The mortgage broker from St. Louis was in the
fairway on No. 14, checking distance for his playing partner ... and then,
he wasn't.

"I felt the ground start to collapse and it happened so fast that I couldn't
do anything," Mark said in a report from his blog, golfmanna. "I reached for
the ground as I was going down and it gave way, too. It seemed like I was
falling for a long time. The real scary part was I didn't know when I would
hit bottom and what I would land on."

Mihal hit the bottom after an 18-foot drop, separating his shoulder in the
process. After about 20 minutes in the 10-foot wide chasm, the victim was
lifted to safety by a member of his foursome, Ed Magaletta, who dropped into
the hole on a rope and hoisted Mark onto a ladder which dangled just out of
reach.

While Mihal's ordeal was undoubtedly harrowing (his wife Lori recounted on
golfmanna that her husband was well aware of the Jeff Bush tragedy), it was
likely wildly surreal for his playing partners as well.

Apparently, Magaletta and Hank Martinez saw Mark fall, but they thought he had
rolled down a hill, as they were some distance away.

Imagine turning around on the course and your buddy has vanished. You'd think
maybe he was, ahem, going to the bathroom behind a tree or grabbing a beverage
from the cart. The last thing you'd expect is that he was devoured by the
course itself.

Eerie.

POISINOUS SPIDER BITE

The LPGA Tour has seen its share of strange incidents in 2013. This one is
pretty awesome.

Swedish golfer Daniela Holmqvist was hitting out of the rough on the fourth
hole during qualifying for the season-opening Women's Australian Open when
she was bit by what observers speculated was a black widow spider.

After swatting away the arachnid, Holmqvist noticed the bite swelling, so she
used a golf tee to slice open the affected area and squeeze out the venom.

"A clear fluid came out. It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever done, but I
had to get as much of it out of me as possible," she told Svensk Golf
magazine.

Amazingly, Holmqvist finished her round. Although she carded a 74 and failed to
qualify for the tournament, the 24-year-old forever cemented herself
as a genuine sporting warrior. Paying attention, Rory?

CAR ACCIDENT/MALARIA WITHDRAWAL

File these two LPGA incidents under frightening.

The Tour's Asian Swing produced some scary moments this season, starting with
a five-car pileup after the final round of the Honda LPGA Thailand, which left
Paula Creamer and Ai Miyazato with whiplash. Suzann Pettersen and her mother
were in a car that narrowly avoided the accident.

Creamer, who tweeted that she "felt like a ping pong ball" during the wreck,
managed a third-place finish the following week at the HSBC Women's Champions,
but Miyazato was forced to withdraw due to lingering effects.

Creamer and Miyazato are back in the field this week for the RR Donnelley
LPGA Founders Cup, but Natalie Gulbis is out. She contracted malaria in
Singapore and withdrew on Tuesday.

According to a statement released by the Tour and Gulbis' management firm IMG,
she "is on appropriate medications, under great care and her prognosis is
excellent." She is expected to "be at full strength in three weeks."

Here's to a full and speedy recovery.

Of note, the Founders Cup's founding partner, Scottsdale Healthcare, was on-
site Wednesday drawing blood for players, caddies and family members wishing
to be screened for the disease.

WHERE'S RORY?

Rory McIlroy's Honda Classic withdrawal is old news, but the circumstances are
certainly strange.

Coming off a missed cut and a first-round match play loss, the world No. 1 and
defending champion walked off the course during the second round after carding
a pair of bogeys, a double bogey and a triple bogey in his first eight holes.
He initially told reporters that he was "not in a good place mentally" before
changing his tune and blaming a sore wisdom tooth.

Still, Rory dealt with the backlash, fired a final-round 65 at Doral and
finished in a tie for eighth. He may be turning a corner, and that's a good
thing for the game.

WACKY WEATHER

Golf is typically a fair-weather sport, but nature refused to play ball early
this season.

From the jump, the elements wreaked havoc, starting with the season-opening
Hyundai Tournament of Champions, which was pushed to a Monday start and
reduced to 54 holes as heavy winds battered the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
Balls rolled off greens and hats tumbled down fairways ... and that was just a
sign of things to come.

Tiger Woods' seventh win at the Farmers Insurance Open was delayed until
Monday due to heavy fog, and Matt Kuchar's Accenture Match Play Championship
victory was nearly overshadowed by, of all things, snow ... in Arizona.

I'm thankful the conditions have improved, and don't worry, I'm not going to
make a locusts joke.

CHUCK TURNS 50

Charles Barkley turned 50 in February and while the Round Mound of Rebound's
birthday isn't unusual, his golf swing sure is.

Anything to show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50K65PNeBU) this clip,
right?

NO SURPRISE HERE

You know, with all the bizarre incidents occurring over the last few months,
Tiger is still dominating the headlines. That, of course, isn't strange in the
least.